Friday, February 8, 2013

Support Items in Season 3

Best and Worst Support Items of Season 3:

Alright, a while ago I said that I would make an article about the new items. Now that it has been several weeks into season 3, I will share my opinion on some of the new items. For strictly organizational purposes I will divide them into sections for easier digesting.

Supports got a lot of love in season 3. The new item's are highly considered as support-oriented:

Shard of True Ice - An interesting item. It keeps the gp10 but overall it's fairly weak. It's like a Lulu ult but without the knockup or hp, just the slow Aura. It's useful to make initiates stronger and I've occasionally seen it on ADCs to kite even better, but the aura radius is a tad too small for it to be considered amazing.

Mikael's Crucible - At first I thought this item was very powerful, but it wasn't what I thought it was. It is actually NOT QSS on a target, it is instead a cleanse. This is important because it won't remove suppressions or other harmful effects such as ignite/grievous wounds. All it does is heal and remove non-suppressions.

Runic Bulwark - #1 item in the game. (Even if you just leave it at Aegis.) Every team should have at least one. It's so good for a single slot you could even consider buying two considering that for a single slot it gives 60 MR--the highest in the game.

Eleisa's Miracle - I thought it would be ridiculous in ARAM/Dominion but it's still more valueable to get real items for 1100 gold. Consider taking heal with a hypercarry like Kog'Maw or Vayne, but even still, 20% CDR of heal is not enough to warrant 1100 gold on a support--where gold is already hard to come by.

Twin Shadows - One of the best scouting tools almost rendering Clairovoyance obsolete. It will go to the nearest champions even if you don't have sight on them. Not exactly abusable but super relevant to a support needs. Additonally it won't seek out stealthed champions but if you activated it while the champion was not stealthed, and while the wraith was en route they stealth, it will still reveal them, making it interesting mid-teamfight against something like a vayne.

Sightstone/Ruby Sightstone - What seems to be the quintessential support item. Possibly the best gp10 item in the game, despite not giving gp10. Can still be grabbed by toplanes/midlanes/jungle for huge map control. Consider 2 on your team if you are winning heavily.

Crystalline Flask - Was intended to be a support item, but is highly abusable in midlane and some toplanes. It's still amazing choice, even as a starting item.

Doran's Shield - Not strictly a support item, but it is something to consider getting early on.

Boot Enchants - Really the only one you want is Homeguard. And most of the time you don't even get it because it's the cost of Ruby Crystal. But if you were to get any other enchant, consider Captain's Boots. I know it seems wonky getting an initiator enchant on a support, but if you consider if both your support in the back and initiator in the front have the captain enchant, your ADC will have a huge movespeed boost for kiting.

General changes in prices to:Armor/MR - Stacking Armor/MR is not as useful as stacking HP. You should have plenty of Armor/MR from Bulwark + Runes + Masteries that getting all the other HP items such as Locket is better. Your team can stack Giant's Belt items to better success now so long as you have basic armor/MR.Attack Speed - It got more expensive. Making Nunu very, VERY valueable. Other ADCs with built in attack speed such as Kog'Maw, Tristana, Graves, etc. become stronger.Attack Damage - It got cheaper. Making autoattacking champions such as Tristana and Ashe significantly weaker, while making ADCs with AD ratios stronger. (Graves, Missfortune, Caitlyn)

Still the final items on a support look like: Shurelia's, Ruby Sightstone, Boots, Bulwark
With the other 2 slots choosing between: Locket of the Iron Solari, Mikael's Crucible, Twin Shadows, Shard of True Ice
Obviously there will be scenarios where your jungler gets Aegis/Bulwark and that could free up a slot. Feel free to experiment.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to tune in on Sunday for some general streaming of League of Legends.

ADDENDUM

Edit: People have been asking why I haven't talked about Zeke's/Locket/Shurelia's/WotA. At first I didn't talk about them because they weren't new season 3 items so they still hold true to what I thought about them in season 2. Since some of them were changed, I guess I will talk about them.

Zeke's - highly situational item. If you are running a bruiser top and an AD assassin mid, it would be the optimal scenario to get it, but it still doesn't beat Shurelia's, Ruby Sightstone, Boots, Bulwark. Perhaps leave it Aegis instead of Bulwark against another AD-heavy team and your next item would be Zeke's. And even still, there might be more pressing issues such as loss of map control for Twin Shadows, burst damage becoming a problem for Locket or Mikael's incase someone gets caught by an Ashe arrow or something. 6th item for sure, maybe 5th.

WotA - highly situational item. Similar to Zeke's, only get this when you, and your double AP team benefits from this. It still doesn't beat Shurelia's, Ruby Sightstone, Boots, Bulwark and basically the same thing as Zeke's.

Locket - a highly underrated item. It's actually more effective than Bulwark if you can use it right. It's also great against burst and allows you to defend your ADC a lot better.

Shurelia's - another quintessential item. It allows so many plays to be made I wouldn't even feel bad if my support rushed this over Aegis.